How to Get to the Snow Monkey Park From Tokyo
Road charter, bullet train or doing it yourself — the three routes from Tokyo to Jigokudani compared on time, cost and where the connections get tight.
Jigokudani is in the mountains of northern Nagano, and there are three ways to reach it from Tokyo in a day: drive it privately, take the bullet train and join a local operator, or take the train and make your own way up the valley. All three are done routinely. Which one is right comes down to how many of you there are and how much slack you want in the timetable.
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Route 1: a private charter, door to door
A driver collects you from your Tokyo hotel and takes you the whole way. Three and a half to four hours each way, which is why every charter runs to a ten-hour day.
- Time: 3.5–4 hours each way
- Cost: $383–$457 for the whole vehicle on the charters we compare, up to five or six people; the wider catalogue starts at about $305
- Includes: usually tolls, fuel and parking; never park admission
- Pickup: anywhere in Tokyo’s 23 wards, including Airbnb addresses. Not airports.
The appeal is not speed — it is the slowest of the three — it is that nothing can go wrong with a connection, your luggage stays in the car, and you can add Zenko-ji or Shibu Onsen on the way back. For a family with small children or anyone with mobility limits, it is the only route that does not involve four changes.
The drawback is seven to eight hours in a vehicle, and a fare that only makes sense split between three or more people. See the charters →
Route 2: bullet train, then a local tour
The Hokuriku Shinkansen covers Tokyo to Nagano in eighty minutes on the fastest Kagayaki services, up to about a hundred on the others. From Nagano station a local operator drives you the last forty-five minutes.
- Time: 80–100 minutes by rail, then about 45 minutes by road
- Cost: roughly ¥7,680 unreserved or ¥8,340 reserved each way, plus $127–$164 per person for the local tour
- Includes: on the tour we rate, the park entry fee, a soba lunch and a hot spring bath
This is the fastest route and, for one or two travellers, the cheapest. It also gives the most time at the pool of any option here — two hours — because you are not spending seven hours on the road to get there.
Two cautions. The Japan Rail Pass does not cover Kagayaki services; Hakutaka trains run the same line, take a little longer, and are covered. And book the tour before the train: the tour has one departure, the shinkansen has many. See how the rail route works →
Route 3: train and bus, entirely independent
From Nagano station there are two ways up the valley.
Via Yudanaka. The Nagano Dentetsu line runs to Yudanaka in about 45 minutes on the limited express or 70 on a local train. A Nagaden bus covers the last leg to the monkey park stop in roughly 10 minutes, ¥390 for an adult.
Direct bus. The Shigakogen express bus leaves Nagano station’s east exit and reaches the Snow Monkey Park stop in about 45 minutes, from where it is a 35 to 40 minute walk.
- Time: 80–100 minutes by rail, then 45–70 minutes of connections
- Cost: about ¥8,000 each way by rail, plus local fares and ¥800 at the gate
- Includes: nothing — and that is the point, since you are free all day
A Snow Monkey Pass bundles the local transport and park admission and is worth pricing if you take this route.
What you are trading is margin. The last useful bus back down is earlier than you would like, the park closes at 16:00 from November through March, and a missed connection on a February afternoon is yours to solve in a valley with one road. Plenty of people do this happily. Nobody does it in a hurry.
The arithmetic, side by side
For a couple, two days out of Tokyo:
| Rail + local tour | Private charter | Rail + independent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transport | about ¥32,000 return for two | $383–$457 per vehicle | about ¥32,000 return, plus local fares |
| Tour or entry | $254 for two, entry included | $0, entry ¥1,600 at the gate | entry ¥1,600 at the gate |
| Time at the park | 2 hours | 1–2 hours | as long as you like |
| Hours in transit | about 4 | about 8 | about 5 |
For a family of four, the charter flips to the front: $383 for the vehicle against four tour fares and four return shinkansen tickets.
The last 1.6 km is on foot, whichever route you take
No road reaches the park. Vehicles stop at Kanbayashi Onsen and the final stretch is a 1.6 km trail along the Yokoyu river — twenty-five to thirty minutes, mostly level, through cedar forest. From November to March it is compacted ice, and boots with grip matter more than anything else in your bag. Crampons are sold at the trailhead.
There is no shuttle, no taxi and no shortcut, and this is the single most common surprise among visitors who booked the transport carefully and thought the transport was the whole problem. What to expect once you arrive →
So which one?
One or two of you, and you want the day to be about the monkeys rather than the driving: take the train. Three or more, or you want the temple stops, or someone in the group would struggle with connections: take a charter. Confident independent traveller with a whole free day and no train to catch that evening: do it yourself and take your time.
Compare all eight tours → or check when to go before you fix a date — the month matters more here than the route does.
See the Snow Monkeys — and Be Back in Tokyo by Evening
A private vehicle both ways, a 30-minute forest walk in, and unhurried time at the hot spring. Rated 4.9/5 by 218 guests. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
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